Norman, Oklahoma
I’d like to introduce you to my wife’s “15 Best Friends” — but maybe I should back up just a bit …
For years, Cheryl & I made it part of our daily walk with the Lord to memorize and meditate on verses and portions of scripture. The Bible repeatedly commends this activity to us, and promises great blessings if we do (Psalm 1:2, Joshua 1:8, etc.) For some time, God’s word, hidden in our hearts and reviewed and pondered each day, has helped us draw close to Him in prayer and has reminded us of His promises in various situations we’ve faced.
In no episode of our lives has this been more vital than after Cheryl’s stroke in August of 2024, which left her left side substantially disabled. At the hospital during the immediate aftermath of the stroke, when we couldn’t have our regular “quiet times,” we were able to use scriptures which we’d previously memorized, to lead us into God’s presence, direct our prayers, and remind us of His faithfulness in an otherwise very dark and discouraging time.
In the weeks following that stroke, in the hospital, the rehab center, and then at home, adapting to life with rehab and further challenges, the Lord brought several specific scriptures into Cheryl’s life that lifted her and encouraged her. A couple of these include:
— Lamentations 3:21-23, which begins: “This I recall to my mind.” Cheryl says you can’t “recall it to your mind” in times when you need it, if you don’t have it memorized — a reminder that we need to have helpful verses like this in our hearts. Then it says: “therefore I have hope” because “the Lord’s lovingkindness never ceases.” Cheryl’s testimony is that God’s lovingkindness towards her has indeed never failed, during all these difficult days. This passage is a daily source of encouragement to her.
— Another is Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.” Cheryl has quoted this verse many a restless evening, and God has used it to bless her with sleep.
It’s been my wife’s habit for some time to review different scripture memory verses each day of the week. But verses like these in Lamentations and Psalm 4 became so powerful — and so needed — in her life this last year, that she made a list of 15 of them she wanted to review every day, in addition to her regulars. As she quoted and prayed these and grew to love them, she came to give them the nickname, her “15 Best Friends.”
Cheryl has made many friends in her lifetime, and several of them told her this past year: call me any time, I will be there for you — and she has been grateful for their ministry to her. But, she says, her “15 Best Friends” don’t need to sleep at night, they don’t have problems of their own, they never go on vacation — they’re never gone on a cruise — and best of all, they don’t die! She can lean on them literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, any time she needs them. In the gloomiest night, she can just reach up, and they are there! And she testifies that she would not have made it through the dark valley of the stroke and its devastating aftermath without them.
Another of those “friends” speaks to this truth: “Had Your word not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” (Psalm 119:92) But God’s word WAS her delight; she leaned on it, and those “best friends” helped her to survive those difficult initial days — and they continue to help her draw near to God and rely on Him in the multiple challenges and discouragements that she continues to face. These verses remain her essential, incomparable “best friends.”
So if you’d like to meet them, here are Cheryl’s “15 Best Friends”:
- Lamentations 3:21-23 (“His lovingkindness never ceases”)
- Psalm 143:7 (“answer me quickly”!)
- Isaiah 40:31 (“wait on the Lord”)
- Psalm 43:5 (“why are you in despair, O my soul, hope in God”)
- Isaiah 58:11 (“He … will give strength to your bones”)
- Jeremiah 31:25-26 (“I … refresh everyone who languishes”)
- Psalm 71:9 (“Do not cast me away at the time of my old age”)
- Psalm 4:8 (“In peace I will both lie down and sleep …”)
- II Chronicles 15:7 (“be strong and do not lose courage, for there is a reward for your work.”)
- Psalm 34:4 (“I sought the Lord and He answered me …”)
- Malachi 4:2 (“you will go forth and frolic like calves …”)
- Isaiah 41:10 (“Do not fear, for I am with you; I will strengthen you …”)
- Psalm 116:7 (“Return to your rest, O my soul …”)
- Psalm 138:3,8 (“The Lord will accomplish what concerns me”)
- Psalm 119:92 (“If Your Law had not been my delight …”)
God has used Cheryl and her special “friends” to minister to others in our church family and beyond. Numerous times, she has shared with individuals and small groups about these “best friends” that God used to help her.
For example, there is a young mother in our church family here in Norman, who had lost a daughter in a tragic accident a year or so ago. This young lady had heard Cheryl speak about her “15 Best Friends” at a leadership training event the previous week, and after church the next Sunday, she came over to Cheryl and shared with her the agony she and her husband had faced in the loss of their child. What do you say to someone who’s experiencing such grief? I thought Cheryl’s response was inspired. She told the young mother, “I have no idea what it feels like to lose a child, but I do know that I would not want to face it without my ‘15 Best Friends.’” The young lady went away determined to find her own “best friends” from scripture, whom she would rely on to help her every day.
So God continues to use these “15 Best Friends” to bless Cheryl and others. As she did with that grieving mother, Cheryl would encourage you to turn to God’s word for comfort as well. You may choose to use some of her 15 “friends” — or, like that mother, you may determine to go and find your own 15, or however many the Lord uses in your life. It’s not exclusively those precise verses, or the number of them, that matters. It’s that you turn to God through His word in your difficulties, and let His Holy Spirit use it to minister to your soul. If you will, then in your own times of trouble, you too can find God’s word to be your very “best friends.”
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About the Author
Shawn Thomas is a retired Southern Baptist pastor with nearly 40 years of ministry experience. He and his wife, Cheryl, relocated to Norman, Oklahoma, in March 2025. Shawn continues to serve the church by providing a weekly overview for Sunday School teachers using Lifeway’s Explore the Bible curriculum, along with sharing sermon texts and other biblical articles. You can read more from Shawn here.
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